Harry Potter and the Dark Beasts
by Asuka Puddle
Summary: A Harry Potter / Weiss Kreuz xover. Features two Japanese exchange students with odd part-time jobs...But what's the deal with all the new teachers? Review please! Ch 6 up!
1. The Exchange Students

Another September, another school year, another school. Tsukiyono Omi had been expecting to be sent to a normal Japanese school, so one could understand his surprise at finding he was being sent to Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year. He'd never even heard of it. That was to be expected, considering the school was located in England. He couldn't believe it. Him, Tsukiyono Omi tayed with him on the plane and took him through a place called "Diagon alley" - a wizard's market where, a wizard? He wouldn't know anything, what to do, where to go. He needn't have worried. Manx s he got some local currency, his new school uniform, books, supplies and even a broomstick. She only left him when he had found a place to spend the night. 

"Your train leaves the station tomorrow morning from platform nine and three-quarters." She told him as she handed him his ticket and left him to his own devices.

He had no trouble finding the station, even with his own choppy English and heavy Japanese accent. The location of Platform nine and three-quarters remained a mystery. He stood in front of the space between platforms nine and ten for a full ten minutes before he heard someone mention the word "Hogwarts". It was an English boy with dark messy hair and glasses and an odd shaped scar on his forehead.

"Ano. . . ." He said nervously, walking up to the boy and his friends. "Sumimasen, but I overheard you talking about Hogwarts, and I'm new there this year, so . . . um. . . "  
"You need to know how to get on the platform?" the boy asked.

"Hai."

"Come on with us then. I'm Harry, and this is Hermione and Ron." The boy introduced himself and his friends.

"I'm Omi. Tsukiyono Omi. I'm an exchange student from Japan, and just got here yesterday."

"Wow. That's cool. I just know you're going to like it. I wonder who the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher is this year?" Ron commented as they walked straight through the wall between platforms nine and ten. Omi dreaded that he wasn't going to like the answer.

On the way to Hogwarts, Harry, Ron, and Hermione filled Omi in on all that he would need to know. The good shops in Hogsmeade; which teachers to watch out for; as well as which students to avoid; and some of the secret passages. At the mention of Nearly Headless Nick and the Bloody Baron, Omi knew with a sinking feeling that this year was going to be worse than the majority of his missions. 

"If you're a Gryffindor, Snape will dislike you. He fully supports Slytherin so try to stay on his good side so that you dont lose points for your house. If you're Slytherin, which you don't seem like the type, you're in the clear except you may want to avoid Draco Malfoy at all costs." 

"I think you're scaring him Hermione." Harry noted as Omi seemed to try to sink back into the recesses of his chair. 

The door to their part of the train slid open.

"Omi-kun?" 

Omi thought he heard an unsure voice say his name. He turned around and saw someone he thought he wouldn't see again - at least for a long time. 

"KEN-SAN! Why are you here?" Ken swallowed down the nervous lump in his throat. 

"Evidently I'm some kind of...wizard." 

"You too?" Omi asked, eyes wide. Ken could almost FEEL the joy in his heart overflow.

"SO I'M NOT GOING INSANE!" Evidently he said that a little too loudly because everyone within hearing range turned to look at him, whispering something about "Mudbloods" and "Muggle-born." 

"I wonder if Aya-kun or Yohji-kun are here too." Omi speculated. Before he even finished saying the sentence he saw a familiar lanky form behind Ken. 

"It's Kudou-sensei to you two now." Ken choked and turned around quickly. 

"Yohji-kun!" 

"I'm the new Herbology teacher at Hogwarts." Oh the irony. 

"Is, is Aya-kun here?" He asked, fearing the answer. Yohji smirked.

"Hai, Fujimiya-sensei is back there." He pointed his thumb in the general direction of behind him. "He's going to teach Muggle Studies." 

Omi began wishing desperately that he had never heard of Hogwarts. 

"Oh yes, and Takatori Suichi-sensei is the new Defense Against Dark Arts teacher." 

"Ano... Omi-kun?" Ken kneeled over the now prone body of Omi laid sprawled on the floor of the train.

Meanwhile Hermione, Harry, and Ron began wondering what had happened over the summer that the school needed that many new teachers...and upon further contemplation of the scene, why it appeared to disturb Omi so much. 

Their pondering was required to go on hold however at the clichéd arrival of Malfoy. Most fortunately for them, Yohji was a teacher and Malfoy wasn't ready to start off his sixth year at Hogwarts with dentention.   
Having seen then body of the boy now in shock on the ground, it took all the self discipline Malfoy could find to not make any comments about Dementors and fainting. But the opportunity was just so perfect... 

"Did he see a Dementor? Oh wait, that's YOUR department isn't it, Potter?" He didn't find enough discipline evidently. He may not have been READY for detention but when fortune knocks on the door who would be so foolish to not open it despite all possible consequences? 

Hermione, Ron, and Harry looked at each other. 

"Three years ago and yet he still brings up those memories..." Harry muttered. 

"What happened Malfoy? Run out of snide comments and now you have to recycle the old ones?" Ron asked. 

"Oh, and what did your folks do to afford tuition THIS year, Weasley? Rob a bank?" Malfoy retorted. Ron glared at him was about to snap back when Yohji cut in.

"Watch it Malfoy." he warned, and attempted to revive his downed friend.

Malfoy noted the accent. "Fine. I have profs in my OWN car to talk to... they actually speak ENGLISH." he commented. He KNEW it was stupid to say something like that in the presence of, never mind directed to, a teacher. By this point, however, he was on a roll and unable to stop himself. Besides, Prof. Kudou was young.. he didn't LOOK like a teacher.

"10 points from Slytherin for that, Malfoy-kun. And I'll see you in the greenhouse after classes tomorrow." Yohji said matter-of-factly. "Now get back to your seat."

Draco retreated just as Omi was waking up.

"Nani?" He groaned. 

"Draco-kun made a crack on my accent, so I gave him detention. He mentioned new profs who speak good English." Yohji explained, helping Omi up. When Omi realized he had actually fainted, he turned bright red. One would think that being a member of Weiß, he would be used to finding out strange things like this. No such luck though.

"New profs who speak English? Who's that?" Ken asked.

"Crawford and Schuldig. Divination and Telepathy." Yohji replied casually. "Just keep your eyes open. And I'd get ready if I were you; we're almost there." 

As the others put their robes on, Hermione inspected Yohji.  
"I don't know what Malfoy was talking about. Your English is great." She pronounced. Yohji grinned that ladykilling smile of his back at her.

"Of course. What did you expect, after seven years at Hogwarts?" 


	2. Food Fight!

All of the first years and the transfer students gathered together around Hagrid once they disembarked the train. Ken and Omi spotted Nagi among the group but they did what they could to avoid him. Among them, voices murmured about where they hoped to be sorted. Omi silently wished that he would be sorted into Gryffindor where he at least knew a few people. And with a lot of luck Ken would be with him too. 

They were all lined up and waiting for their names to be called. Evidently the process was that when your name was called, you were to go sit on the stool and the Sorting Hat would be placed on your head. Ron had warned him that the hat talked to you so Omi doubted he would be too startled. Once the hat told you where you were to be sorted, you were to go down to that particular table and sit in an empty seat. Harry, Hermione, and Ron promised they would save a seat for him in case he did make it into Gryffindor.

He was pulled out of his reverie by "Ken Hidaka." 

Ken calmly left Omi's side as Omi pondered how he managed to look so calm. He sat down on the stool and the hat was placed on his head. Immediately Ken's eyes widened. 

"An assassin are you?" the hat said to him. "Now THAT'S something we haven't had yet. You're too hardened to be in Gryffindor or Hufflepuff but maybe Slytherin...? No, you've had your taste of all the greatness you've wanted, haven't you? Therefore I think you would best be put in 'RAVENCLAW'!" 

The Ravenclaws all stood up to applaud and yell. They hadn't ever gotten a transfer student in their house. 

Ken walked to the table and took the first available chair. 

A few more first years were called out and then it came Nagi's turn. "Another assassin? You've had it tough, haven't you?" the sorting hat said. "Wow you're a cutie...Well, maybe things will turn around for you if I put you in GRYFFINDOR!"

A few others were sorted and Omi knew that it was almost his turn. His name was called and he went to sit down. On the way there he surveyed the room and saw many familiar faces at the teachers' table. Some with grins and some with smirks...and Aya with his trademark frown. Just where was Farfarello? That was all this nice happy get together was missing. 

"Well now, a THIRD assassin? This must be Hogwarts' lucky year." 

"Lucky?" Omi muttered under his breath. "If no one gets hurt it could be lucky." 

"Concerned about others are you? You've had a tragic past and the only group I think that would give you the kind of family surrounding you need is 'GRYFFINDOR'!" 

Omi blinked as he heard the thunderous applause. He hadn't even needed to ask to go to Gryffindor. He went to sit down with Ron, Hermione, and Harry as the whole table seemed to beam at him. They all looked so kind and friendly. If Schwarz dared to hurt any of them.... 

Ken found a seat next to some athletic looking boys his own age. 

"Hey! Welcome to Ravenclaw! Name's Sean." one boy introduced himself. 

"Ken Hidaka." Ken replied. "I don't suppose Ravenclaw has a football (we're internationalizing it) team?" 

"Football? What's that?" another boy asked. 

"It's a muggle sport. Like Quidditch on the ground with one ball and one net each." Sean explained. 

"Quidditch? What's that?" Ken asked. Sean went on to explain everything about the game. Ken's eyes went wide as he imagined the poor goalie who had to defend three nets from four balls until he learned that only one of them would be used to score. 

"So what football position do you usually play?" Sean asked at the end. 

"Goaltender." 

"Are you any good?" 

"I'm a professional." 

"Got a broom?" 

"Broom?" Ken stared at Sean. "Where can I get one? Can anyone teach me how to ride?" 

"Sure! How about right before breakfast tomorrow? Until you get your own you can use one of the school's, although they're pretty bad, or you could use one of ours while the remainder of us coach you from the air." Sean looked Ken over. "But you look like a quick study. We shouldn't have much of a problem with you."

All talk stopped as the food appeared on the table. Quite literally... appeared on the table. As in out of nowhere. Ken blinked. He couldn't imagine himself ever growing accustomed to this. Of course once he looked at it a bit closer, and smelled it a bit further... he realized that it really wasn't that important and the main thing to do at a position such as this was to eat to his little heart's content. 

Omi was thrilled. He had never felt this wanted before. His work in Weiss put him in places that the rest of Weiss were absolutely thrilled he was there, but they moreover wanted him there because it was that or they would never know if the enemy was about to come around the corner. So nice to be wanted for the safety of others. Does wonders for an ego. 

There was only one thing ruining this little picture of true bliss in his life that he could see from his vantage point... which coincidentally happened to be sitting right across from him shooting little daggers at him with his eyes. 

"Omi! I'm so glad you made in into Gryffindor! Although I was almost positive you would anyway!" Hermione beamed at him. 

"Dom-thank you Hermione!" he absolutely loved this feeling! In fact, he liked it so much, he was just going to ignore the glaring fifteen year old across from him.

"Anyway Omi, have you met Nagi Naoe (NAOE!!! SEE THAT?! NAOE!!!! Okay, Murase Askua signing out now ^_^()) yet? He's from Japan too!" Ron added. 

Scratch that. "Ano... we may have crossed paths once or twice." Omi suggested tentatively. 

Nagi gave a slight smirk. "I think I kept seeing you when you were at a bad time... running into walls, throwing things at people..."

Suddenly Omi slapped his hand to his neck. Was it his imagination or did something just hit him there? All over his face he felt little... pings. And there was something blocking the flow of air in his nose. He couldn't help himself. The mashed potatoes looked so inviting... and he was a good aim. 

Meanwhile everyone at his part of the table was wondering where all the peas were coming from. 

Split second action and the potatoes were in the air, and then all over Nagi's robe. Nagi glared and reached for a huge handful of peas, heaving them at Omi but slightly overthrowing... getting the blonde boy at the other table. It seemed Nagi needed to perfect his aim.

In less then ten seconds the whole room was in an uproar. 

Draco Malfoy had been enjoying his first big feast back at Hogwarts when it was so rudely interrupted by something flung at the back of his head by someone at the Gryffindor table. He didn't even have to look to see who it was. It had to be either Potter or Weasley. It didn't matter which one. He brushed out his hair, and caught a few peas in between his fingers. Peas. PEAS. Potter and/or Weasley had thrown PEAS at him! He signaled Crabbe and Goyle and grabbed the gravy. He stood up, turned around, and dumped it on Potter. 

Crabbe and Goyle threw Scalloped potatoes at anyone within reach. 

Yohji and Aya had found seats at the Staff table, with Persia and Dumbledore to their right, and Snape and McGonagall to their left. When the food appeared on the table, Yohji helped himself to some mashed potatoes and roast beef. Aya just sat there. 

"What was Hogwarts like when you were a student?" He asked. 

"Pretty much the same." Yohji replied. "Except I was sitting over there instead of here." He pointed towards the Gryffindor table, where the food fight was just breaking out. 

"Hey!" He exclaimed, a bit louder. A few more teachers brought their attention to the food fight. 

"What are they doing?" Aya glared. 

"A food fight.. that takes me back.." Yohji put a bit of spuds on his spoon, and flicked them at Aya. They landed on his cheek. 

"Lighten up." He said. Aya sweatdropped, and flicked the spuds back in Yohji's general direction, missed, and ended up hitting Persia's shoulder instead. 

Aya's face went as red as his hair, and Yohji bit his lower lip to try and keep from laughing. Persia looked at the two and sighed. Then he brushed the spuds off his jacket. 

Dumbledore smiled slightly and rolled his eyes. "Let's end this before the place becomes a complete mess, shall we?" He said simply. By this time, no student was eating. He stood on his chair. 

"Excuse me!" Dumbledore raised his voice slightly. 

"Since it doesn't appear that you're hungry, I see no need to waste such good food." He waved his wand, and the food disappeared. 

"You will now return to your dormitories." 


	3. A Little Fun!

Okay!!!! Hi! I wanted to do a short disclaimer although I think it's pointless and rather obvious we don't own 'em. Did you catch it? Good. It pains me to repeat it. Well, I'm Murase Asuka and the second Asuka. I have an account on here under the name of Alyssa Sadi but it hasn't been updated in months and until.. Hell freezes over it may not be again but who knows? The other Asuka has more fics under her screen name of Kudou Chan. She updates far more than I do and gets more reviews. I also tend to write straight stories (tend to, as in always) and hers... aren't ~_^. We like reviews. In fact, we tend to work harder the more reviews we get. Any incentive there for you people? We don't like flames really. If you want to give us them then do so but you should probably be never be left alone you poor sick person with no life. 

We did some weird and atypical things in this but we think it adds to the humor and we like humor. We've decided to kill the timeline. We're somewhere towards the end of the first season and then we write our own thing in Weiss Kreuz. In Harry Potter we're just making it up since the books haven't reached year six yet - but we are saying what Rowling (again, not us) wrote for years one through four did occur. 

I think I've babbled enough now... read and enjoy! Oh yeah! Should I mention we were feeling rather childish when we wrote most of this part?

MAKE SURE YOU REREAD CHAPTER TWO – we redid some of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So Crawford! What did you think of the feast? I think it went quite well, don't you?" Schuldig leaned back in his chair. Crawford let out a noncommittal grunt. 

"Don't lean back in the chair. You'll fall and then we'll have some nosy poltergeist poke what's left of its body in here to find-" 

THUMP. 

"I'm guessing that was a foretelling of yours." Schuldig muttered darkly as he pulled himself back to his feet and his chair with him. 

"What's going on in here?" The one ghost they had been warned against when the entered Hogwarts glided into their room.

"I heard a thump. Is it anything inappropriate?" Schuldig smirked. 

"No, but I've been working-"

"SCHULDIG!"

"Hey Peeves! You're a prankster, right? There are these two new teachers and two new students that I think really need a good Welcome-to-Hogwarts Surprise. Got any good ones stored up?"

After the feast, The adult members of Weiß and Kritiker assembled in the Defense against the Dark Arts classroom, along with Headmaster Albus Dumbledore for a briefing, of sorts. Manx and Birman now oddly resembled house elves, instead of humans, but they seemed to be taking it rather well. Yohji was sitting backwards across a chair inspecting a back issue of the Daily Prophet, dated to the day after their last mission. Aya was sitting normally and not doing much else. Persia was giving his approval that the room was, in fact, safe to talk in. Dumbledore was NOT impressed. 

"I was practically ORDERED to hire the three of you by the Minister of Magic. Said it was a matter of National Security. Would you be so kind as to explain this to me?" He asked shortly. Yohji closed the newspaper and tossed it Dumbledore's way. 

"Check out the headline." He suggested. Dumbledore did. It read "Weiß takes down another Dark Wizard gang!" His eyes went wide as he looked up at Yohji, Aya and Persia in horror. 

"These two, plus Ken Hidaka and Omi Tsukiyono are Weiß. I am the one who created the group, and the one who gives Weiß their targets. We have discovered that Voldemort is trying to resurrect an ancient demon with the help of a powerful group called "Esset". We are here to stop them by any means necessary." Persia explained. Dumbledore eyed Aya and Yohji suspiciously. 

"Are you sure they're safe?" He asked. 

"Come on, professor! You know me!" Yohji protested. It didn't seem to help much. 

"It's BECAUSE I know you that I'm asking, Kudou." Dumbledore replied. 

The food fight broken up and the feast halted, the Gryffindors marched hungrily up to their tower. Snickering to himself, Peeves snuck in the throng close to his target, the new Japanese boy... He got into position directly behind him… and let out the loudest, smelliest, most wall-vibrating fart you'd ever had the misfortune of being around when it was released. Peeves hovered over them on the ceiling as at least a hundred students turned to the new kid. 

"UGH! OMI~~!" They shouted. Omi went red in the face. 

"It wasn't me!" 

"Yeah, right. We have noses, you know." One kid said. Above them, maniacal laughter broke out. Ron looked up, and most others followed suit. 

"PEEVES!!!" He shouted angrily, as Peeves took off for his next target. 

Ken Hidaka was a very happy individual. He could take this whole school thing. Studying potions? MUCH better than partial fractions. More use for them, too. Maybe he could forgive Persia for making him go to school again. 

It was his first day here and he already found people to teach him the sports played here and maybe even give him a spot on their team! This much luck just wasn't natural. He grabbed his dark green bath poof and began working to scrub the gravy of his body. 

Now Ken doesn't normally sing in the shower, but today was just so perfect that he felt the need to top it off with a nice song. 

Peeves winced as badly pronounced English floated through the other new student's bathroom. Obviously the kid hadn't practiced his English enough. Peeves grinned as he cast the spell to amplify Ken's singing all over campus. 

Yohji picked up one of his books he had scattered around his room and stumbled over to the window.

"Where's the screeching cat?"

"I've done my sentence but committed no crime

And bad mistakes I've made a few

I've had my share of sand kicked in my face

But I've come through and we mean to go on and on and on and on

We are the champions, m-PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVES!!!!!!!!!!!"

Once some of the sleep was shaken out of his head, it occurred to him just what he was hearing. "Oh, poor Ken. What a lousy prank for Peeves to start off the school year with..."

Yohji covered his eyes with his hand as if that would make the memory go away. "Perhaps I could give him lessons in English?"

Aya frantically searched all over his new room for his favorite boxers the following morning. It was the first day of his teaching and he needed all the luck his boxers could bring. These weren't just ANY boxers! No! His sister had given them to him for Valentine's Day and there was just such a wonderful feeling about all those cheery red hearts on the white background. See, while everyone thinks he's just a very boring and uptight individual, he's actually showing his happy side with his boxers... but very few know about this side of Aya - he tries to conceal his boxers to the best of his ability. 

Unsuccessful, he finally fell onto his second favorite pair which fortunately was just washed. His name brand Joe Boxer boxers. There's just something so comforting about knowing there are all these smiling yellow dots all over them!

When Aya finally made it down to the Great Hall for breakfast, everyone was in an uproar. Everyone but Yohji that was, he was evidently still sleeping. Would he ever NOT sleep in? Floating in the 'sky' of the Great Room were someone's boxers. 

Schuldig was rocking back and forth in laughter and Crawford was reclined back, a slight smile gracing his face. 

Dumbledore was standing up, trying to restore order. He floated the boxers down to the teacher's table. 

"Would the proud owner of these boxers please come forth and reclaim them sometime today? And the culprits please come and turn themselves in?"

Aya really hoped his face wasn't currently matching his hair color. 

Peeves of course chose that moment to show up again. 

"Nice boxers, Professor Fujimiya!"

The Headmaster raised his eyebrow as everyone in the Great Hall who heard that turned to look at Aya. 

"Guess that answers all of those questions, now doesn't it?"

The next moment everyone's attention was diverted away from Aya as soon as it registered that some sort of...creature...was advancing towards the grinning Peeves. 

Yohji prided himself on having a good joke, in fact, he was the one who taught Ron's older brothers many of the secrets to successful gags and tricks that they now knew, but this was going too far! NO ONE pulls a joke on Kudou Yohji. 

It had started out like a good day until Yohji noticed that his shampoo was not its normal white bubbly self. In fact...it looked green. More specifically, that really ugly green that grandmothers try to make sweaters out of. Actually, his hands and his shoulders looked somewhat green too, for that matter.

Which brings us back to the present as Yohji, with ugly green hair and ugly green skin stalked behind Peeves. 

In light of Aya's previous embarrassment, this kind of made him feel real good. At least compared to Yohji now. He couldn't help it. The smiling yellow dots were trying to take over his face! All of a sudden...he grinned. Peeves had REALLY gotten Yohji were it counted.

Ken cleared his throat. "Kudou-sensei..."

"Ken-kun, never sing again. Now stop distracting me."

"Demo, Yohji-kun...just what CAN you do to a ghost?"


	4. Investigations

Yohji grabbed a goblet from a nearby house table and chucked it across the room. It ended up hitting a portrait at the other end of the wall.

"OW! Watch it!" Snapped the painting. 

Yohji didn't care.

By the time Breakfast was over, Yohji felt considerably calmer. Despite his green hair, he walked to the greenhouse confidently, and was not put off in the least when the students pointed and talked about him when they arrived. When everyone arrived, he started class.

"ALL RIGHT!!!" He shouted above the din. Within a minute all eyes and ears were on him.

"You're not here to gawk at my hair, as gorgeous as it may be." He started. "You're here to learn about magical plants. My name is Prof. Kudou, but I'll answer to Kudou-sensei, if you're inclined to call me that."

Crawford didn't go to breakfast that morning. He left early for Hogsmeade, so he could talk to the person responsible for his team's being in England. Any excuse to bring Farfarello this close to his homeland had BETTER be a good one.

In the alley behind the Two Broomsticks, Crawford found his man, dressed in a shabby, dirty gray robe.

"What do you want with us?" He asked.

"How goes things at Hogwarts?"

"The others are already there."

"Good..." The man in the dark robe replied.

"So is Weiss." Crawford pointed out.

"Who is Weiss?"

"Four noisy flies buzzing around."

Inside his hood, the dark man narrowed his eyes. Insects were buzzing around. Flies. There were flies that bit. Did these ones bite?

"Swat them, then." The dark man replied.

"As you wish."

"Have you located a host for The One?" The dark man asked. This time the question was posed with slightly more urgency.

"Yes. It's a young girl whose body has not aged since she entered a coma, two years ago."

"Good, good."

Crawford's eyes lost focus, as his mind was forced to focus on some other thing. Then, they came back into focus again. "Your servant is listening around the corner." He told the dark man. 

As if to confirm the prediction, the sound of falling boxes around the corner was heard as the servant tripped. He then fell into place beside his master.

"Master, You should not stay here much longer. What if someone spots you?" The servant insisted, hardly daring to lay a finger on his master's robe.

"As much as you annoy me, you are correct." The dark man told his servant. "We will leave."

He turned to go, and stopped.

"Crawford." 

"Yes?"

"Use the Potter boy as the sacrifice. I leave it to you." With that, the dark man started to leave, slowly enough so Crawford could answer.

"As you wish, Lord Voldemort."

Harry, Ron and Hermione wandered along the halls, on their way to lunch, after their first lesson of the year. It was transfiguration, and it had been brutal. They were in the midst of conversation when a teacher cut in front of them from another hall.

"Say, isn't that one of those new teachers?" Ron asked.

"That's Professor Fujimiya." Hermione said, remembering the incident that morning. "He's new."

He's new... that made Harry stop and think for a moment. "We have a lot of new teachers, don't we?" He asked.

"Six of them." Hermione replied.

"Why on earth did we need so many this year? Usually the only position to be filled is Defense Against the Dark Arts." Harry pointed out.

Ron caught on to Harry's line of thinking. "I don't know," he said. "But I'm going to find out."

When Fujimiya went down a hall that did not lead towards the Great Hall, So did Ron. And then so did Harry and Hermione.

"It looks like he's going to the Infirmary! At least that's the only thing in this direction worth seeing, anyway," Hermione speculated. 

Ron rolled his eyes. "This means we're following some teacher who could just have a headache?" He scuffed his shoe on the ground. "Joy. I'm so glad we have this knack for things like this. And chances are we'll stumble upon some big plot of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's, just like the five years before this."

Harry had to agree. The group did have a peculiar tendency to stumble upon big mysteries that technically should have been way out of their league. 

The group stopped walking to give the professor a bit more of a head start. "Not only that, but Hogwarts is supposed to have some of the best professors out there! Shouldn't they be able to figure out most of this? You'd think they were incompetent or something like that."

"Now Ron," Hermione said, looking disapprovingly. "That's not nice at all to say! After being here for a full five years and starting your sixth term you KNOW that's not the truth! Besides," she said, clearing her throat and leading them again, "most of the time it seems as though Professor Dumbledore knew the whole time what we were doing."

"Then why doesn't he HELP?" Ron asked, a bit spitefully.

"Shh!" Harry held his finger to his lips. "He's stopped in front of the Infirmary. If he goes in we should wait until he comes out to see what's going on."

Hermione bit her lip. "I haven't heard anything about anyone getting hurt here already!" Suddenly she giggled. "He has cute boxers."

Harry and Ron let out collective groans. 

Aya entered the Infirmary, nodding politely to Madam Pomfrey as he sat down in a chair beside the only occupied bed in the room. Madam Pomfrey came and stood next to him. 

"I've looked her over multiple times and I can't find anything wrong with her. Physically she's just fine, but emotionally, that may be what's holding her back from waking up." She had been told most of what happened that night as if it might help her figure out what was wrong, but she and the remainder of all the professors were completely in the dark that Aya and Yohji were a part of Weiß.

Aya let out a noncommittal grunt as he smoothed down his sister's hair that was coming out of its braids. WHY was it always the innocents who were harmed the most? Two years of her life were brutally stolen away from her in the hit and run. When she woke up, if she woke up, all she would have would be her brother, the one who stole her identity away from her. No parents, no home, no more innocence. 

Madam Pomfrey left to do her tasks and Aya felt it was secure enough for him to talk to his sister again. "I don't think you'd believe it if you saw me now. I'm wearing a black robe, of all things, and teaching about our kind of people to a group of relatively snobby individuals. You would like it here, I think. The people in the portraits move from place to place and talk to you. Ghosts roam the hallways and there's even a poltergeist here who, oh you'll love this, stole those boxers you gave to me a few years ago. He put them in the Great Hall. At first I thought I was in the clear and no one knew they were mine until he came in and announced it to everyone. Thankfully Yohji came in at that point and distracted them all. Evidently Peeves, that's the poltergeist, got him too. I've told you how self-absorbed Yohji can be; well, Peeves put green dye in his shampoo and soap. He'll probably match most of what he's teaching about. Herbology. Of all things, can you believe it? Then again, the idea of Yohji teaching is a bit terrifying in itself." 

The smile that had been creeping onto his face as he spoke began to wan as it came back to him that his sister wasn't as awake as his mind was trying to create in his head. "I had hoped so much that they would find a cure for you here, but I guess not. If it IS your heart that's holding you back from waking up, then, please, find it within yourself to let go and live out the remainder of your life the way kaa-san and tou-san would have wanted it to be."

His eyes hardened as he stood up to leave and get ready for his next class. "And no matter what, I will avenge you."

Harry, Hermione, and Ron were all smashed behind a small pillar next to the door to the Infirmary. "What could be taking him so long?" Ron grumbled. "If he doesn't hurry, we're going to be late for our next class!"

"Oh stop growling Ron! He has classes to teach, too, so he'll have to come out any moment now!" Hermione patiently reasoned out. 

"To be honest, I don't really want to take my chances either, Hermione. We have Potions next and I'd rather start of my year a little better than with points taken from Gryffindor as well as Detention all because we're spying on a teacher who went into the Infirmary. In all our experience figuring out evil plans, none of them have involved Madam Pomfrey OR had their base of commands in the hospital ward."

"Cynic." Hermione muttered. "Fine. Go if you want, but I'm staying here." As she said it, the door opened and Aya's figure was silhouetted in the light.

They waited until Aya was safely down the hallway and then Hermione made her way to the door.

"Hermione! Wait!" Harry whispered urgently. "What will we tell her to explain why we're here?"

But it was too late; Hermione was already in the room. Ron rolled his eyes yet again and he and Harry followed her.

"-Oh a headache? What a horrible way to begin the new school year. Here, I knew I had some of this!" Madam Pomfrey held up a small vial. "One drop of this in a glass of water and you'll be on your way," she pronounced, readying it for Hermione whose attention was directed towards a bed in the corner. 

"Madam Pomfrey, who is that?" She asked, walking entranced to where the girl slept. "She's so pretty!"

"Ah." Madam Pomfrey nodded her head. "That she is. I don't think it's my place to tell you who that is, though. I can tell you that she's in a coma right now."

"Blimey," Ron whispered. "Will she ever wake up?"

"It's up to her if she wants to."

Harry stood there for a moment just staring. She was lovely, with bluish black hair pulled back in two braids and a fair complexion. She was Japanese, which meant she must have some connection to the new teachers or exchange students. Since it had been Professor Fujimiya in here, it was natural to assume that was whom he was visiting. Maybe she was his girlfriend or a relative of some sort?

"Oh, well, we're running late to our next class so we better be going, but thank you Madam Pomfrey!" Hermione called while pulling Ron and Harry out to the hall. 

Ken's next class was Muggle studies, which would be something of a relief. Apart from not being able to hear the end of his "unique" rendering of "We are the Champions," he had had a hard time understanding Flitwick-sensei. Instead of shooting a flower from his wand, he shot a cloudy, odd colored slime that had the distinctive aroma of rotten eggs. He had a lot to catch up on.

Muggle studies would probably be much better for two reasons: Aya-kun... oops. Fujimiya-sensei was teaching, and his new friend Sean was in the class. Fujimiya-sensei started the class by writing his name on the board in Romaji and in Kanji and started a discussion on Japanese Nomenclature. It seems that Fujimiya would be teaching about Japanese muggles. Ken WOULD do well in this class.

((AN: Sohryu here. Well, YOU tell me how much Aya knows about British PPL if you don't like this idea.))

This was about the time Farfarello decided to crash in on the class. Peeves was a ghoul after his own heart, but his smalltime pranks got boring. He stood in the doorframe for a minute and surveyed the class. He narrowed his eye as he entered.

"Ugh." He said, spotting Fujimiya. "Why is everybody here so BORING? I don't CARE what you stupid Profs say, I CAN'T sit still any more." At this point, his eye softened and he broke into a grin. 

"I want to play with someone. Guess what Prof? I pick you." Farfarello produced his blade and gave it a playful lick. Whether he wanted to look menacing or just liked the taste, Ken didn't know. He just wished he had his bugnuks with him. But they were locked up in Ravenclaw, not doing him an ounce of good.

Despite being faced with a complete lunatic, Fujimiya kept his cool. He merely looked annoyed.

"I'm busy." He said. "Don't interrupt my class." With that, he pointed his wand at Farfarello and muttered something Ken didn't hear properly. Farf collapsed on the ground snoring, and the class went back to their lesson. Most of the students seemed to be acting as if they had been interrupted by Peeves.

After lunch that day, Omi had Potions with Hermione and the other Gryffindors, the Slytherins, and the Infamous Professor Snape. He had placed Omi in the seat between Hermione and another nervous-looking boy named Neville Longbottom.

"Hi!" Omi said cheerfully. "I'm Omi."

"N-Neville." Said Neville. He didn't look too good, Omi thought.

After Omi was seated, Snape turned to him.

"Let me make it quite clear, Mr. Tsukiyono, that if I hear one word in a language I do not understand, you will receive an immediate detention, regardless of what it is."

"Yes sir." Omi blinked. He would have to remember not to call him Sensei.

"Sorry about that." Harry whispered. "It doesn't get any better, I can tell you."

"Yeah." Ron agreed. "It's just weird for him not to pick on Harry by now. What's he got against you?" Severus Snape picked on Harry mainly due to a grudge he held against Harry's father.

"Is there something you wish to discuss with the class, Mr. Weasley?" Snape was hovering about them again.

"No, sir." Ron said.

"Then get back to work. All of you." With that, Snape went away, but not without shooting Harry his typical menacing glare. And people thought AYA-kun needed an attitude adjustment.

"So Weasley, can't stay out of trouble at all, can you?" Malfoy's snide comment drifted over to them.

"Why can't you mind your own business, Malfoy? Or are the low IQs of Crabbe and Goyle finally boring you so much that you're trying to find better company?" Harry shot back, not really caring if Snape heard him. Not that he did, he was too busy putting out a fire from a Slytherin's exploding cauldron. He didn't even take points away from them, either. 

"Oh, nice comeback, Potter. Learn that one in your first year?"

"At least it's an advancement over the crib!" Hermione countered, angrily.

Omi shifted nervously as the insults went back and forth. "Sorry to interrupt, but, umm, the fire's out and it looks kind of like Professor Snape may be about to come over here, and-" He was cut off before he could finish.

"Is there something going on here? Mr. Malfoy, are these Gryffindors bothering you?"

"There's no problem, Professor Snape, I was just saying hello to the new Gryffindor," Malfoy smirked as he spoke.

Omi sunk down in his chair as Snape looked at him. "Fine then, but don't be causing any trouble like that Kudou," he said, scowling the whole time.

All in all, Omi might have liked potions if it hadn't been for Snape's grumpy demeanor. It was kind of like chemistry, but instead of making apple-less apple pies, he got to brew concoctions that had ingredient lists straight out of Shakespeare's Macbeth, with its Eyes of Newt and Tongue of Dog. This particular concoction was some form of invisible ink.

All the same, Omi was glad when the class was over.


	5. Reflections and Research

So the Asukas got together and had another relatively unique idea. We just started an RPG (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPDB_RP) that we would love to get started on but we need more people! It's very loosely based on the fic - meaning you can do whatever you like as long as you're a character from either Harry Potter or Weiss Kreuz. Check out the site for more info.

And so many of you are probably wondering about pairings. We have some excellent ideas for them - we're sure you'll be thoroughly amused.

But I'm sure you'd like to read the long awaited Chapter 5, ne? Well here it is…the story based on things not owned by us. Please review! We really appreciate all the wonderful reviews we've been receiving! Oh yes, and it hasn't been edited yet. Dreadfully sorry but we thought we might as well let you read what we have anyway. You can make due with a few typos, right?

**~~~*~~~**

Now that Potions was over, the sixth year Gryffindors made their way toward the Great Hall for some greatly desired food. Omi caught sight of Ken and waved him over.

"Say, uh, Ken-kun. Have you met _Professor_ Snape yet?" Omi asked, stressing the English word. He had better start practicing and getting used to it now.

"No…should I have?" Ken was perplexed. What did it matter?

Omi was usually a reasonable person, but for some reason or other, he KNEW Potions was not going to be a pleasant class and Professor Snape was going to be even less pleasant. "Nevermind, forget I said it." 

"Omi!" Omi's eyes widened at the energetic calling of his name from Ron. "You have some kind of connection to Professor Fujimiya, right? Do you know who that girl in the Infirmary is?"

"Ron!" Hermione hissed. "We shouldn't be spreading around that we know about her! We don't even know for a fact that Omi knows the professor anyway!"

"Oh! Aya? She's his younger sister - I don't know if I should be telling you any of this, it's really something you should ask Professor Fujimiya about if you want to know more."

"Oh come on! Please Omi? We really want to know!" Hermione begged. "What happened to her? Is she going to be all right? 

Omi turned to Ken to get his opinion. "What do you think, Ken?"

Ken shrugged. "Can't really hurt anything, can it?"

"Well, Aya is Professor Fujimiya's little sister. When she was sixteen she was hit by a car and fell into a coma. No one's really certain why she hasn't woken up yet, actually."

"'Was sixteen?' How old is she now?" Harry asked confused. She looked like she was still his age!

Ken took over there. "I think she's eighteen now. When she was put in the coma, for some reason she stopped aging."

"That's horrible."

"Yeah." Harry and Hermione agreed with Ron's sentiment. 

"Losing out on two years of your life… that would be awful." Hermione continued.

Snape patrolled the halls looking for any Gryffindor he might be able to wreck some havoc to. Like maybe that Omi Tsukiyono character. He had some kind of connection to Kudou AND was a Gryffindor. He rated somewhere near Potter for those offenses. 

They were from JAPAN! There was a Magic School there, why did they not get/attend jobs there?! He cursed the injustice of it all. How could that Fujimiya have gotten a job here too? He didn't know anything about Britain Muggles! He didn't look like he knew all that much about people for that matter. Occasionally Snape tried to talk to him, but that Fujimiya just ignored him.

But then there was the professor to replace Trelawney. He looked promising, like someone who would be an excellent teacher here at Hogwarts. He didn't care much for the teacher of Telepathy, though. He was a little…what was the word? Playful, maybe? Not serious enough? The Nagi boy was a Gryffindor. That spoke volumes enough.

One thing Snape was curious about was this new ghost they had running around the place. He tried to remember the name…Farfie? Farfello? Farfarello! That was it! Most spirits never leave the place of their death so why was he here? No one had died over Summer Break.

While Snape pondered over his opinion of all the new teachers, Yohji was roaming the halls to see how much Hogwarts had changed since he last attended it. Not too much, even Snape was still the Potions professor. Speaking of which…

Snape caught sight of Yohji at that moment. "YOU! Why are you back here at Hogwarts! I thought I had finally gotten rid of you when you completed your seventh year here and moved to Japan!"

"You mean you've missed me that much, Snape?" Yohji teased in return.

"Believe me Kudou; nothing would have made me happier than to never have seen your face again." Snape snapped, giving him the glare of hatred he reserved for the scum of the earth.

Yohji only smirked in reply. "Well, no such luck. I'm teaching Herbology."

Herbology? That was a stretch from the nosy little brat Snape had known. In fact, if Kudou had paid as much attention in Herbology as he had in Potions, then. . .

"Frankly Kudou, the thought scares me."

Harry had trouble getting Aya in the Hospital Wing out of his mind as the four headed back for Gryffindor tower, but as they got nearer to their destination, that became less and less of a problem. A heated argument was going on in the hall just around the corner from their present position. Two people were involved. Harry recognized one voice as Snape's.

"Funny. Fujimiya said the same thing." The second voice joked. Hermione and Omi recognized it at the same time.

"Professor Kudou!" Hermione said.

"Yohji-kun!" Omi said.

"Ssshh!" Ron hissed. "They'll hear you!"

"Don't you think you should have taken the hint? You couldn't teach a mandrake to scream."

The tone of Snape's voice was familiar too. He _hated _Kudou. But Kudou hadn't been teaching long enough to make THAT much of an enemy out of Snape, only a few days.

"Don't worry. I'm perfectly qualified." Kudou answered calmly. Harry thought he deserved credit for keeping his cool this long.

"What makes you more qualified than all the OTHER applicants, then?" Snape countered accusingly.

"Come on, Snape." Yohji said. "You should know very well what makes me more qualified."

At this point, Omi rolled his eyes.

"What?" asked Harry.

"Yohji-kun is teasing him."

The others exchanged nervous glances. It was not wise to tease Severus Snape.

"I don't care what Dumbledore sees in you. I know you better than that. You're nothing but a murderer."

Omi's face drained of its colour. Snape couldn't possibly know about Weiß, could he? Was that why he hated Omi so much?

"NO way." Ron's eyes opened wide. "Professor Kudou, a murderer?"

Around the corner, all was once more peaceful and quiet. Snape and Kudou must have gone their separate ways again.

"It can't be. This is Snape." Hermione pointed out. "Dumbledore wouldn't have hired Kudou if he was a murderer."

"But what if he DOESN'T know." Ron asked.

Omi said nothing.

That evening, Ken had his first-ever Quidditch practice. So this was why Birman had insisted he buy a broom. It had been expensive, but Birman had told him it was best for his purposes, so he had bought it.

"Who's this?" One girl asked as Ken took his first steps onto the pitch, his eyes on the goal. He was sure he'd be able to defend it if he managed to not fall off his broom or do something equally stupid.

"He's our new keeper. We're going to be unstoppable this year; he's a professional!" Sean's face was glowing, but the rest of the team seemed skeptical. And with good reason.

"At football." Ken pointed out. "I don't even know how to fly."

So Ken's first Quidditch Practice turned into Ken's first flying lesson. He felt like such an idiot, puttering around near the ground when everyone else was zipping about overhead. He got the hang of things eventually . . . 

Near the end of the evening, Ken put his feet back on the ground, and they let a few bludgers at him. They came in at angles that wouldn't have been possible on a football pitch, but Ken still managed to stop the ones that came within his normal range. When the evening was finally over, Ken was exhausted, but he felt better than he had since he'd arrived at Hogwarts.

"I think I'm gonna like this game." He said.

All of Schwartz was assembled in Crawford's office again for another meeting of extreme importance - according to him. The room was heavily warded and shielded with all sorts of spells to prevent meddling from unwanted visitors. One could never be certain there weren't any prying eyes or ears around, especially in a place like Hogwarts where certain students were notorious for their spying. 

"After meeting with Lord - Farfarello, pay attention. You will play a special role in distracting everyone. Now, as I was saying," He pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "After meeting with Lord Voldemort, we've decided that the best time for the summoning ceremony would be during the Christmas holiday when we do not need to worry about any unnecessary annoyances, or at least fewer."

Schuldig grinned from the chair he was sprawled out in. "And ruin all these poor kids' holidays? Where's your sense of holiday spirit?"

Crawford sent a disparaging look to Schuldig and he quieted immediately. "The girl, Abyssinian's little sister, should be easy enough to grab, unless of course her over-protective brother happens to be around. Something tells me she's not going to wake up any time soon." His eyes swiveled around the room taking in his team member's reactions. "Farfarello, when I tell you to, I want you to create the largest disturbance you possibly can to create mass pandemonium. Get some of your fellow ghouls to help you. Nagi, that's when I want you to get the girl and bring her back here. No one should suspect me of anything so there shouldn't be any reason for anyone to come to my office. While you both do that, Schuldig and I will take care of getting the Potter boy. We'll leave some time after that. When we get the exact plans fully arranged I will let you know for certain. This should be an easy mission to accomplish with so few people around. I expect none of us will allow Weiss to pose any threat to our goal. That is all."

To his surprise, Nagi was the first one to stand up and make a break from the room. Usually it was Schuldig ready to be the first to escape and get to his normal mischief. Hogwarts had better not be influencing him away from Schwartz and their ultimate goal.

Nagi hurried from Crawford's office, anxious to get away from all the caution and all the strictness Crawford enforced. He had finally been able to feel like the kid he really was until that reminder that he was actually a cold-blooded killer. With that in mind, he wondered just how he managed to get sorted into Gryffindor. From what he had seen and heard, Gryffindors were loyal and brave and just overly kind and just plain nicer than he was! There was no way to sugar coat it. He had murdered innocent people for no reason at all. What was he doing surrounded by all these pure people that were fighting Voldemort as well as they could?

This whole place was mocking him. The portraits on the walls, so friendly to the students, seemed to smirk at him as he passed. Even they appeared to know that this whole face he had on at this school was just a farce. There was a group here that he believed he could fit in, the Slytherins. But now that the ugly hat put him in Gryffindor, he had no way to earn their trust. He would just have to continue on as he always had, alone. 

It took him awhile to find his way back to the Gryffindor common room. He was quite smart, but the maze that Hogwarts was still confused him as it constantly changed during all hours. He approached the rather…large…lady in the hideously colored pink dress with relief, looking forward to crawling into his bed with a good book to drown out the many annoyances all around him.

Except there was one tiny, itsy bitsy problem. He couldn't remember the password. His eyes widened with dismay as it suddenly occurred to him that the one time his memory failed him had to be when he wanted nothing more than a nice break in order to read.

It must have been about three minutes of glaring from the Fat Lady before he heard the loud patter of feet heading in his direction. He earnestly hoped it was someone in his house. A red hair girl came around the corner a moment later. He knew her! She was in his year and in a few of his classes. She was a friend of Potter. Maybe, just maybe, it could help if he tried to get into their little group and earn their trust. Maybe that would be the whole mission easier in the long run.

Ginny was completely out of breath when she got the Fat Lady. She hoped no one else would be around so she could be alone in the Common Room but no such luck. Right in front of the portrait was one of the new students from Japan. The one in her year, come to think of it. 

He was watching her as she approached. She nervously held out her hand. "Hi! I'm Ginny Weasely! You forget the password? If you did, don't sweat it, we all do that."

Nagi stared at her for a moment and then shook himself out of it. "Uh, yeah. Nagi Naoe. Nice to meet you." He shook her hand. "Could you, uh, well, remind me of the password again?"

"Oh! Sure! It's 'ferret-boy'! Don't let me forget to tell you the story about that sometime - I bet you'll never forget the password then!" She crinkled her brow in thought. "Well, maybe I should save it for a day when Malfoy's being particularly frustrating. It's more meaningful that way." 

The Fat Lady opened the door the moment Ginny said the password and Nagi no longer had to see her scowling expression from his linger in the hallway. 

No one was in the Common Room when they entered since it was such a pleasant evening and many of the students hated to be cooped up inside when they could be outdoors enjoying themselves until the sun went down completely. They stood there in silence until Nagi surprised himself by speaking up. "So Ginny, if there was one thing you thought I should know about while being at Hogwarts, what would it be?"

Ginny grinned at him. "Oh that's easy! Know that we in Gryffindor will always be there for you when you need it most."

Nagi felt an uncomfortable feeling in this stomach. Why were they all so nice?!

"And the second thing is, if you ever need to talk to a teacher, talk to Dumbledore. Chances are he already knows what's bothering you anyway."

Dumbledore looked over his spectacles at the four sixth years in front of him. His old withered hands absently stroked his long beard as the students recounted what they heard between Professor Snape and Professor Kudou. Fawkes was in the corner in all its glory.

"…and so we were hoping you could tell us what Professor Snape meant when he called Professor Kudou a murderer?" Harry asked the grandfatherly man hopefully.

He stopped playing with his beard as Harry stopped speaking. "Mr. Potter, I assure you there is nothing to be concerned about. I know exactly what Professor Snape is talking about and can faithfully assure you Professor Kudou is of no threat to anyone at this school. I do suggest that if you would like to know anything about his life, you go straight to him. I will tell you this, however. Professor Kudou has a Muggle life other than his Wizard life. Perhaps if you asked him about some of the Muggle jobs he's had you may find your answer." Dumbledore stood up from his seat to escort the group to the door. 

"There are many more things you should be worried about right now. I would imagine you all have quite a bit of Potions homework to get started on?"

The entire group moaned at that reminder as they walked out of Dumbledore's office. Snape was such a slave driver!

Hermione's mind was going a mile a minute. "Omi, what do you know about Professor Kudou's job in Japan?" She asked as they walked back to their common room.

Omi ran what he knew of Yohji through his head. "Well, we worked at a flower shop together right before coming to Hogwarts." He figured that was safe to say. "And before that…" Should he mention Yohji was a private investigator? Wait, maybe THAT was what Snape was talking about! Omi felt weak to the knees as that knowledge kicked in and took a load off his shoulders. "Before that he was a private investigator! That's what Snape was talking about! I knew Yoh- er, Professor Kudou wouldn't have murdered anyone!"

"A PI?" Ron's eyes widened in excitement. "Wicked cool! I wonder what it was like? He was basically a Muggle version of an Auror then, right?" He asked, drawing on his knowledge of the Muggle world through his father.

Omi had no idea what an Auror was. "I suppose so…" He looked at Hermione and Harry for help, but Harry was too immersed in his thoughts to be paying attention, just like Hermione was. 

Hermione voiced some of what she was thinking, though. "Well I'm glad there's nothing wrong with him then! We need more interesting professors around to keep the rest of the student body on track and to get them to pay more attention in class!"

Harry broke out of thought right then to catch that sentence and shared a sidelong glance with Ron, both secretly hoping this didn't turn out like with Gildroy Lockhart.


	6. Much Ado About Everything

So we still want you people to join the RP if you like what we're doing with this story. You can find the link to it on the site we listed under our info page, or in chapter 5. Murase Asuka just recently changed her pen name to Kaisynaya, and has a new story up on ffn, but it's solid HP. Sohryu Asuke just changed her pen name to Resident Bishounen. Check out our other accounts with the stories we write individually! (I believe RB just posted a new fic too btw). 

The brief mentioning of LOTR is because we have to pay homage to great writing. And it wasn't done by us because we don't own LOTR either. This is a rather depressing matter so we're going to move past it now. 

As always - REVIEW!

Aya-chan was inside a castle. A large one. And though she had been inside it for quite some time, she had not been able to find her way out yet, try as she might. It was all one big maze. She DID manage to find a few important places: behind a painting of a fat lady in a pink dress, there was a dormitory. It had a fireplace and nice comfy chairs, and nice and comfy beds. Not TOO far away, there was what appeared to be a large banquet hall set up with long tables. Food instantly appeared on it whenever Aya-chan sat down. When she wasn't sleeping or eating, Aya-chan spent her time trying to get out. She normally became hopelessly lost by the time her stomach told her was "lunchtime", and gave up, but sometimes, something different happened. She could hear her nii-chan's voice. She couldn't quite make out what he was saying, but it was definitely Ran's voice, and Aya found it encouraging. She didn't feel quite so muddled when he was with her. Inevitably, though, nii-chan would leave before she'd found the exit.

Today, Aya-chan was DETERMINED to find the way out, nii-chan or no nii-chan. She wandered aimlessly for a time, and found herself at a dead end.

"Oh great. NOW where do I go?" She asked no one in particular.

"That depends on where you want to get to." Answered a painting on the wall, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. That was another thing Aya still hadn't gotten used to. The paintings here could talk.

Aya knew it was childish, but by this point she had had it up to HERE. She was fed up with this place, with the absence of a clearly-defined exit, with not being able to understand her brother. She threw a temper tantrum.

"I want to get OUT!" She stomped her feet and yelled at the painting. "I WANNA GO HOME TO MY NII-CHAN!"

The painting smirked as though it were insufferably proud of itself for knowing something that Aya didn't.

"Well, why didn't you say so?" It asked. "Right this way."

It swung forward like a door to reveal a lush green lawn underneath the warm summer sun. Aya rushed forward enthusiastically only to find herself lying in bed in a castle again. Great. She'd dreamt the door-painting, hadn't she?. . On further inspection, there was something different about this place. It didn't look quite like she was the only person here. The beds beside her needed to be made, and absent minded humming drifted her way from an adjacent room. Soon the woman humming came into view. She seemed like a nice lady. Aya was glad she wasn't alone anymore.

"Well hello. I'm glad you decided to join us." She said when she saw that Aya was awake.

Aya was confused. She didn't know much English. She understood 'hello', but nothing else.

"What? Where's my nii-chan?" She asked, but clearly the woman didn't speak Japanese.

"You just sit tight one minute, and I'll go and fetch your brother." The lady said. Aya understood the word 'brother'. The lady gave Aya a reassuring smile before she left again.

If he had to pick one subject as his favorite, Seamus Finnigan would have to pick the class he was currently in, muggle studies. This year, it was especially interesting. Japanese muggle studies. Today, Professor Fujimiya was talking about how they celebrated English holidays, such as Christmas. He was just getting to the good part when Mme Pomfrey entered the room. Fujimiya stopped his lecture and went to her, rather anxiously from Seamus' point of view.

"I have some good news." Pomfrey said. "Your sister has decided to come back to us. She said something, but I'm afraid I didn't understand."

Fujimiya's entire face lit up. He was even smiling.

"Aya. . ." he said. For a moment he just stood there. Then he remembered himself.

"CLASS DISMISSED!" He shouted, and hurried out of the room, Pomfrey hurrying behind. Most of the class was left stunned, unsure whether to take him seriously or not. Pretty soon most packed their things and left, trying to leave before Fujimiya changed his mind. What was going on? Seamus didn't get it, but he couldn't wait to tell Harry.

Crawford was pacing around in his office. He considered it most fortunate that he did not have a class right now, allowing him plenty of time to devote to working around this tiny problem that just arose. Why didn't his powers tell him this was going to happen? This made their whole plan much more difficult. Aya was awake. Their entire plan was going to have to change. There was no way Fujimiya would let his sister out of his sight now. With the girl asleep, only a few students would have known about her - much less of her kidnapping. Now that she was awake, she would obviously be making her presence known to the entire student population. And then if she were discovered missing, nosey little students would probably investigate. Most inconvenient. 

All of Schwartz was in his office yet again. Schuldig of course was incredibly amused that the all-knowing Crawford was…wrong. "Funny Crawford…last I heard she wasn't going to wake up any time soon."

"Hit him with something, Nagi." Crawford snapped as a retort.

After dodging the paperweight coming after his head, Schuldig stood up from his usual chair. "Well, I'm off to my class to teach…after all, have to keep up appearances. When you come up with a plan let me know. Until then, I'm off to make some Gryffindor and Ravenclaw sixth years miserable!"

Crawford was about to say something but Schuldig closed the door before he could speak. 

Seamus ran straight to Harry, Ron, and Hermione when he saw them already in the Telepathy classroom. For some reason everyone was required to take the class. Dumbledore had said something about forming mental barriers to keep unwanted things out. Like Death Eaters, most assumed. 

"Did you hear?! Professor Fujimiya has a sister! And she just awoke from…something. Pomfrey didn't say! Do you know anymore about it?"

Their eyes all met. "I can't wait to meet her!" Hermione said excitedly. "I hope she's friendlier than her brother!"

"It certainly seemed to make his day. He let us have a free period!"

"Well, you can't blame him, can you? According to a friend of ours, she's been in a coma for a couple years. She was in some kind of car accident in the Muggle world." Harry added.

Ron looked speculatively. "Think she'll join the school as a student when she's feeling better? She's got to be a witch…unless she's a squib."

"She's a witch." Ron gulped and turned around to see the source of the unfamiliar voice. "You must be Ron Weasley. Nice hair. And you Harry Potter," the orange haired professor added, noting the scar on his forehead. "That leaves this young lady as Hermione Granger. Miss Granger. Is your mind always on books? And yes, Seamus Finnigan. And look! Bombay!"

Hermione swiveled to face Omi who had just joined the group. "Bombay?"

Omi's face drained of color. How was he going to explain that? Why was Schuldig so open with it? It could bring consequences to him too. Not that that had ever bothered him, come to think of it.

The young professor chuckled. "Mr. Tsukiyono and I are old friends. That just happens to be my pet name for him."

"How cute!" Lavender sighed.

Omi's eyes widened. Were they ALL in this conversation now? He could just see it now. "Uncle Persia… I need a new code name. Schuldig exposed me and now I think all the girls are going to call me 'Bombay' because they think it's cute!" Yohji would roll on the floor in laughter and never let him live it down. Neither would Schuldig. This year was going to be horrible!

He was brought out of his reverie with Harry poking him in the back telling him to go sit down somewhere. Apparently he was the only one still standing up.

Schuldig waited for Omi to sit down before he started, of course. Omi was sure he did it just to make him feel even more nervous.

"Good morning, class. My name is professor Schuldig. Welcome to Telepathy." He passed around the room, reciting the little speech he'd prepared earlier.

"Some of you may find this class enjoyable." He brushed his hand along Lavender's desk and winked. He was rewarded with a wave of hormone-induced giddiness, and a shy grin. It was at this point that Omi stopped paying attention, and found himself thinking about Hermione. Omi thought her the nicest girl he'd met at Hogwarts. And very pretty, too. And. . . 

And that was when Schuldig stopped at Omi's desk, and slammed a fist down on it. Omi was startled, but the desired effect was achieved. Omi's attention returned to Schuldig.

"Then again, others may not. And Bombay, kindly get your mind on class and off of Miss Granger."

Omi blushed, and the rest of the class giggled. Except Hermione, who blushed as well, and Ron, who gave Omi a questionable look.

"Either way, I can promise you an interesting year. So let's get started." Schuldig continued. For the rest of the class, he dictated the course outline, including a description of their final exam. They would have to develop mental defenses, and if Schuldig could get into their minds past them, he would share an embarrassing story out of their past with the rest of the class. Omi wasn't sure whether Schuldig would tell them about his kidnapping, or about Weiß, but he WAS sure that he would tell them something, regardless of the outcome of his test.

Schuldig also made it a point to call Omi by his codename through the whole class.

"My name is Tsukiyono Omi." He corrected once, resentfully. Schuldig assumed an indignant pose.

"Don't correct ME. Do you want a detention?" Omi shot him an angry glare worthy of Abyssinian.

"No, sir." He muttered and said no more. He felt sick. He just KNEW he was going to hate this class.

By the time lunch rolled around, Aya-chan and Ran Fujimiya were joined by Professor Dumbledore, who entered the room with the sorting hat tucked neatly under his arm, and Madame Pomfrey, who entered with an old, dusty bottle in her hands. She handed it to Ran.

"Be a dear and give her this for me. Make sure she drinks every last drop. It'll make her good as new again."

It proved to be quite a slow and tedious process, due to the fact that Aya-chan's muscles had atrophied somewhat in the two years she'd spent lying in bed. Eventually the task was done, and Aya's muscles were impaired no longer. She sat up with ease.

"AAh! That feels so good!" She said, giving her brother a hug. "nii-chan! I missed you!"

Ran smiled back. "I know." He said. "I missed you, too."

It was at this point that Professor Dumbledore spoke. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Fujimiya." He said.

"Who's the old guy?" Aya asked. Thankfully, Ran was the only one who understood. Dumbledore shook his head slowly.

"No, this just won't do." He pulled out his wand. "Loqui Angles."

It was amazing. Suddenly, all the background chatter, which was indistinguishable from nonsense to Aya-chan previously, made sense to her. She could understand what they were saying as plain as if they were all speaking Japanese.

"Much better. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts." Dumbledore continued.

Hogwarts was, of course, the name of the school that Aya was in. Her Nii-chan told her all about it.

"I am pleased to count you as one of Hogwarts' students, but in order to do so, you're going to need to be sorted into a house." Dumbledore explained. "This hat will do so. Just place it on your head."

The hat Dumbledore had seemed rather old and ugly to Aya. How could it 'sort' her? She looked over at Ran, but he nodded that it was okay, so she did as she was told.

"A little late to be sorted, isn't it?" The ratty old hat asked once Aya-chan had put it on her head.

"I – I'm sorry." Aya apologized in a small voice. "I've been asleep for a long time, and I've only just woken up."

At this, the hat took on a more soothing tone.

"Oh, it's quite alright. Let's just see here. . . I sense a strong bond with your family, but not with your friends. That' s odd."

"They're on the other side of the world, if they even remember me." Aya sighed, bowing her head.

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"I'm going to study hard, make lots of NEW friends, and make my Nii-chan proud!"

"That settles it." Said the hat. "GRYFFINDOR!"

Meanwhile, Yohji walked along the halls with a purpose, Draco Malfoy in tow. They were off to the hospital wing to arrange Draco's detention. Professor Dumbledore had been the one to suggest the odd timing.

"Professor Kudou, why can't I go to lunch? Can't you just tell me what I have to do after school?" He complained, lagging behind.

"Because I said I would arrange your detention now, Malfoy-kun. That's why." Yohji didn't even look behind. They arrived at the hospital wing just in time to see Aya-chan be sorted into Gryffindor.

Great, thought Malfoy. Just what Hogwarts needed. ANOTHER Gryffindor.

Dumbledore took back the sorting hat and tucked it back under his arm once more before greeting the new arrivals.

"Mr. Malfoy, just in time. I'd like you to meet Aya Fujimiya." He said. Fujimiya? Why did that name seem familiar?

"She happens to be a relation of Professor Fujimiya," Dumbledore said. The red-haired Japanese man sitting with the dark-haired Japanese girl nodded. That explained it. Fujimiya was that new teacher who never smiled.

"She is going to be joining us as a 6th year student. Your job will be to escort her to classes and the surrounding areas until she becomes more familiar with the school."

"Meaning no disrespect or anything, Professor Dumbledore, Professor Kudou, but wouldn't it be better for her if a fellow Gryffindor were to show her around?"

"Why? Are you just trying to get out of showing me around? That's fine by me! I wouldn't want to be shown around by some pompous, frilly, brat! I bet you couldn't even do it if you tried!" She turned her back to him, ignoring him completely while trying not to smile.

She was familiar with those kinds of people. The ones that thought they were better than the rest of the world. He oozed pride. She'd show him! "And no, Nii-chan, I refuse to apologize."

Aya, or Ran as he would tell everyone to call him from now on, closed his mouth. "Apparently two years later I still act the same way I used to with you."

"Frilly! I am not frilly! I am a Malfoy and Malfoys are NOT frilly! They are poised and elegant, and-" He stopped as soon as he realized he was being led on.

Aya was nodding at his outburst. "Obviously so."

The adults were attempting to refrain from laughing.

Draco knew he should be upset. In fact, he wondered why he all of a sudden...wasn't. Maybe it was because he knew he couldn't do anything about it. "You know what? You're right. I'll take you around. And the first thing I'll do is introduce you to some of the other Gryffindors." Why was her brother glaring at him? It's not like he wanted to do it either.

Madame Pomfrey looked worried. "Mr. Malfoy, are you feeling all right? Do you think you have a fever?"

Come now! He wasn't being that much out of character! He could be helpful when he wanted. "I'm fine," he got out through gritted teeth.

Aya smiled sweetly at him. "Well? Let's go!"

While not necessary the easiest of his classes, Care of Magical Creatures always proved to be the most eventful of Harry's classes. Today, Hagrid had containing one small, grey, knobby, sneaky-looking thing. Harry could also see that he held something metallic in its hands.

Soon, the whole class was watching the strange creature. That was when it crept over to the wall of the pen closest to Hagrid's cottage and snatched the hook off of a fishing rod that was leaning across the fence. The creature crept back to its spot. Hermione wasted no time going up to Hagrid, who had just come out.

"Hagrid! That… thing of yours. It's got the hook from the fishing rod over there." She told him, pointing.

Ron rolled his eyes. Leave it up to Hermione to spoil the fun. He was hoping that Malfoy would annoy it, so it would try and stab him with it.

Hagrid was not amused.

"Bloody Hell!" He said, and took off into the pen and chased off after the thing, which had started running away. At one point it came close to where Harry and Ron and company were watching, and the thing dropped what it had been holding originally, in order to clutch the hook closer. Ron picked it up. It was a coin. On the large side, it had a centre of gold bearing the picture of a polar bear on one side, and a portrait of the Queen engraved on the other. It was surrounded by a silver ring. On the heads side, the Queen's name was written, along with a small maple leaf, and the year 1996. On the tails side, "Canada 2 Dollars" was written.

"What IS it?" he asked, admiring it.

"Muggle Money." Said Hagrid, coming up behind him, hook in one hand, and the thing under the other. "From Canada."

"MY PRECIOUS!" the creature struggled like mad to free itself and to grab the coin from Ron. "We must have it!"

Hagrid walked past Ron and tossed the thing back into the pen.

" 'Ang on there, Déagol. You'll get it soon enough."

With that, he took the coin from Ron.

"See him? He's a Gollum. Gollums aren't too far off from House Elves. The thing is, they like shiny things. Get rather attached to them, too. Wizard who had 'em in their houses would soon go broke."  
Hagrid tossed Déagol back his coin, and he scampered off to the far corner.

"So that's how Gringotts got started."

Today's lesson involved feeding it.

"What do they EAT?" Pansy Parkinson asked, with a disgusted look on her face.

"Fish." Hagrid said. He fetched a large bucket that was sitting beside the house. Inside were two live trout.

"Aren't you even going to kill them?" She asked again.

"Nope. He likes to kill 'em himself."

Pansy turned green. She wasn't the only one.

"Who's first?" Hagrid asked.


	7. New arrival at Hogsmeade

Sorry about the long time in updating but here is the next installment of Harry Potter and the Dark Beasts!!! We regret to inform you there is not a lot of Ken in this chapter, but he will play a larger role next chapter. There is, however, some Farfie!!!! Yay!! Keep reviewing!

We don't own HP or WK.

He was going to give himself a raise after this. It wasn't that he hated children. On no, he liked them. After all, who couldn't love liars, cheaters, and sniveling brats?

And twenty-five of those charming specimens were sitting in desks, starring at him. That Snape guy had the right idea. Terrify the kids into submission. He saw how they all avoided him at any cost. Even the Slytherins tried to avoid him if they could pull it off subtly. 

Yes, he made up his mind. He would terrify them all and keep them as far away from him as he possibly could.

"To you, I am Professor Takatori. Tah-kah-tou-ree. Get it right, I will not answer to any scrambled form of it. This year, Defence Against the Dark Arts will be much more challenging than you have ever faced. Our focus will be on hand to hand combat with some weapons training as well. I've noticed many of you have obviously not been keeping in any sort of shape other than round," he added, thinking back to the two uglies trailing that blonde Slytherin git all around.

He convinced Dumbledore before the term had started to let him have one of the nearby spare classrooms. He lined the entire extra room with mats just in case anyone decided to be coy and/or stupid. Oh yeah, he hadn't been chief of the police for no reason.

"Most of the time we will not be in this room. Across the hall is another classroom allotted for our use. Next class period will be our first time in there so I hope you all bought work out clothing as your list of supplies for the school yeah indicated. Those of you with longer hair may want to pull it back lest it get caught on anything, or anyone's fingers. And ladies, if I hear one word about a chipped or broken fingernail, I'm taking house points."

The children stared more. In fact, during the entire class period the only indication of life was the stir from the search for parchment to write on. Although the entire atmosphere began to loosen a bit once he began to explain the simple chalk drawings on the board.

Each image involved two individuals. A character who looked remarkably similar to him was involved in different variations of hurting others. He had tried to make the students relate to the issue at hand by clothing the victim in school robes.

Above the pictures were the words "no talking or-" from his previous class that would not stop talking. He hadn't finished writing the rest of the sentence on the board before something else was going haywire in the classroom. He wouldn't be the least surprised if the students all thought he would hurt them if they spoke. All the better if it made them leave him in peace.

He should have been an Auror.

As a new policy, Dumbledore was allowing for more Hogsmeade visits for fifth, sixth, and seventh years. And that was how Omi, Ken, Nagi, Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Sean found themselves standing in front of The Three Broomsticks.

Omi and Ken hadn't seen Aya much since she woke up the other day and highly doubted Ran would let her out of the castle any time soon. Poor girl.

Thoughts were interrupted when the group got the shock of their lives. Draco was leading Aya straight to them.

"Gryffindors!" He proclaimed. "I would like to introduce you to your newest fellow Gryffindor, Aya something or other. She's the sister to the Muggle Studies teacher who for some reason thinks we want to know about Japan - OW!" Aya hit him hard. 

"Urusai Draco-baka!"

His eye twitched. "What?"

Apparently Aya could still speak in Japanese if she wanted to. "Anyway," she continued, ignoring him to size up the group. "You two," she said, pointing to Omi and Ken, "are friends of nii-chan, right?"

"You could call it that, I suppose," Ken snickered. "Welcome to the world of the living again, Aya-chan."

"So now you can leech off them!" Draco suggested energetically. "Later."

He was so close. He could see the light of freedom in the tunnel. He was almost there, almost gone, and then there was ground. And pain.

Aya snagged the back of his robe with such an amazing strength that he fell down on the ground.

"How dare you?!"

She looked at him straight in the eye, much to the amusement of the assembled Gryffindors and Ravenclaws around them. "Kudou-sensei told you to show me around. It's only been a day. Please take me around Hogsmeade?"

How could he say no to those eyes? He fell into their depths. Curse his luck! "Fine," he grudged out.

Aya looked quite pleased with herself. "Thank you, Draco," she purred.

All right, that had to stop right now. She was purring! No one triumphed over Draco Malfoy. On the other hand, what could he do to stop her? It doubtlessly only aided her image to be seen with him, but what could he get out of this? The only family he knew about of hers was her brother and his only claim to fame was being…a…teacher… Okay, he could take this. This had merit. If he were nice to the sister of a prof, of course the teacher would like him and give him good grades. It burned him inside that due to scheduling conflicts he had to take Muggle Studies this year. 

Hey, was that guy checking her out? Out of the corner of his eye, Draco saw some Hufflepuff seventh year looking Aya over. How dare he! She was his!

Then the inevitable happened. Aya dropped a purchase she made right off the bat. Three guys all dived to grab it for her, Draco and Aya standing there in shock. 

"Here you go, Ms. Fujimiya." The winner of the battle of the package was the same oogly-eyes Hufflepuff Draco saw earlier. The other two males slinked back into the shadows.

"Er, well, uh, thank you!" Really, Aya wondered. Were all the Brits this pleasant?

Draco inwardly groaned. She would be the type to be completely oblivious to everything, wouldn't she? Hopefully that would work out for the best. 

Both were drawn out of their reverie to the sounds of laughter.

"That has got to be the funnies thing I have ever seen," Harry declared, wiping the tears from his eyes.

"You should have seen your face!" Ron practically howled out, completely unable to stop laughing.

Every time the group calmed down, one look at Draco's scheming face and Aya's perplexed on send them back into gales of laughter.

Draco had enough of this. "Come on, Aya. Let's go get a butterbeer or something." He put one foot into the building and then swung around, pulling Aya each way with him. "Actually, I have a better idea. How about we go just about anywhere but in there?"

Aya had to give him some credit for highly random sentences. "Are there any good dress shops around?" She ventured to ask. Not like he would wait around while she shopped, but it was worth a try, especially when he looked so desperate to get away from that building. It was astounding how quickly he could go from cool and collected to man with a mission.

"Robes! Good idea! She'd never think to look for me there!"

Aya mentally gave herself a nice pat on the back. "It worked," she murmured to herself. 

It was really great to see Aya up and around, Omi thought to himself. And this whole thing with peoples his age, also pretty cool. And on that note, Hermione was also quite pretty. He blushed. None of that! Schuldig will never let you live it down. He wondered if she was seeing anyone at the moment.

The group was all sitting around, drinking butterbeer. Omi found it surprisingly good. Harry was entertaining the group with the story about Norbert since he couldn't get in trouble for it now.

This feeling of friendship and camaraderie was such an alien concept for Omi, but it was great. Except, of course, for that ever-present glare in the corner. Nagi. Again.

From what he heard of the supposed Gryffindor qualities, he figured the Hat messed up with Nagi. He was evil. Gryffindor was anti-evil. Well, it was that or Nagi had a sweet side he tried to hide deep within himself. Yeah right. How many assassins are sweet? Ok, that was a bad argument but it just doesn't work! Maybe he bribed it!

"…mi?"

Omi shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Oh, sorry, Ken. Were you saying something?"

"Just asking if you were all right. You looked a little out of it."

Was he blind? Nagi was there! With them! And he was just smiling and completely enjoying himself! What if Nagi was plotting their downfall?! "Oh, I'm fine. Lost in my thoughts and all."

Nagi stared at him. Why, oh why did the fates have to put him with the Weiss kid?

Omi shifted nervously. "I think I'm going to go roam around." Why was he starring at him?!

"Will you be all right alone, Omi?" Hermione asked cautiously. "These are dark times."

Omi felt his heart flutter. She was willingly initiating conversation with him! Kami-sama be praised! And she cared! "I'll be fine, thanks though." The great thing about the school robes is they conceal a lot. At the moment, Omi was a heavy armory leaden down with quite a few darts.

Hermione looked down out her empty cup. "I'm done anyway, do you mind a little company?"

It was the best day of his life! He loved Britain!

He hated Britain. Nagi WOULD come along, wouldn't he? It figured. Just when he was about to have time alone with a pretty and intelligent girl, he asked to come along. Naturally, Omi was obligated to agree to be nice. After all, aside from Ken, no one else knew what Nagi was or to be suspicious of him and warning them without giving away what they were either.

Teenagers had such hard lives! He was distracted from his moaning by the sight of Yohji at the train depot. Omi slightly wondered if he was meeting on of his many women.

Omi couldn't ask Yohji about it even if he dared, because at that moment, there came a hideously deranged screaming, sounding as if it came from a pitiful excuse for a house nearby. It came so suddenly, and with such a racket, that Omi jumped. It was all he could do to keep from pulling out a few of those darts he kept handy.

On the plus side, the hideously deranged screaming also had the pleasant side effect of making Hermione to clutch Omi's arm suddenly. After a moment though, she remembered herself and let go. She ran towards the house. Omi and Nagi followed close behind.

"Hermione! What are you doing?" Omi asked once he had caught up.

"That noise." She said. "It's coming from the Shrieking Shack." The Shrieking Shack? Omi didn't like the sound of that.

"Someone lives there?" He asked.

"No." Hermione frowned, and stopped at the side of the road in front of the Shrieking Shack. "It's been empty for years. There's a tunnel leading to it from under the Whomping Willow at Hogwarts."

Nagi pieced the scene together quickly. So THAT was the Shrieking Shack. He had heard Crawford mention in passing that he was going to stash Farfarello in there to keep him out of the way. And now he was in town, raising eyebrows. Just perfect.

"Then what could that be?" Omi asked. A haunted house was the last thing he needed right now. Nagi volunteered to investigate before Hermione could reply, but that only served to worry her.

"But Nagi, you couldn't possibly go there alone."

"Don't worry. Nagi's real tough. He'll be okay." That was strange. Why was the Weiss kid covering for him? Oh well. Nagi wasn't about to deny it. . . . What was the name of that ghoul that had humiliated him? Peeves?

"Besides, it it's supposed to be empty, then it's probably just Peeves." Nagi responded. Luckily for him, she agreed.

Yohji Kudou was in Hogsmeade on personal business that day, and Hagrid had come along to help him. Hagrid had insisted that they leave early, so they could pop into the Three Broomsticks for a bit of a drink first. Now Yohji thought it was hardly time to be drinking, but it had been years since he had a chance to hang with Hagrid, so he had agreed.

"Well, there's a face I haven't seen in ages." Rosmerta commented as the two men took seats at the bar. Yohji replied with his customary flirtatious grin.

"It's good to see you again, darling." He said. Rosmerta laughed, and leaned against their patch of bar for further interrogation. It was hard for Yohji to believe that it had already been six years since his last Hogsmeade visit, in his last year at Hogwarts.

"So what brings you here, handsome?" she asked.

"I'm teaching, believe it or not."

"What, they let you back in the school after your prank at your graduation?" She asked with all seriousness. 

Yohji chuckled nervously. "Come on, it wasn't THAT bad." He said.

"All right then. So what are you teaching, Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

Ouch. . It was the obvious subject for Yohji to be teaching to anyone who had known Yohji during his days as a student. The ones who could get over his 'playfulness' that is. Herbology, on the other hand, was not a terribly obvious thing. It's not that he did badly. In fact, he did rather well. It was just that Yohji never found Herbology to be terribly interesting.

"No, this year's Dark Arts prof is much more qualified than I am." He said. Rosmerta looked confused.

"So what DO you teach?" She asked. He took it as his cue. Yohji snapped his fingers, and a cattelya appeared between them. He handed it to her.

"Herbology." He purred. Confused, but satisfied for the moment, Rosmerta took their orders. Thankfully, Yohji managed to convince Hagrid not to have anything stronger than a butterbeer. The last thing he needed on his hands was a half-drunk half-giant. Yohji finished much before Hagrid, and decided to wait for him in front of the train depot. Try as he might, he just wasn't in the mood for hanging at the pub. How could he, on a day like today? HE was coming to live with Yohji today. Yohji had doubted this day would ever come, but it was here. The 'he' in question was coming the same way everyone else did: By train. Hagrid had come to help with his bags, so Yohji could spend the day with him. Yohji promised to meet Hagrid outside, and that's where he still was when Omi and Hermione approached him.

"Yohji-kun! What are you doing here?" Omi asked. As if he needed a reason. Since when were Hogsmeade weekends restricted to students?

"I'll let you get away with the 'Yohji-kun' just this once, since we're not at school." Yohji answered playfully. "But I'm here to pick up a very special someone, if you must know." Omi didn't look too surprised to hear that. Heck, knowing his own reputation, Yohji wouldn't be surprised if Omi thought he was here to pick up a girlfriend.

"Oh yeah? Who is it this week?" Omi said. See, what did he tell you?

"Omi!" Hermione seemed shocked that Omi would talk to him like that, but Yohji just laughed it off.

"Hey. I resent that remark." He said with feigned insult. "In any case, I can guarantee you that this person will be in my life much longer than any girlfriend I've had." Yohji could see Hagrid approaching at the end of the street. He had to end this, and get onto the platform.

"Lucky lady." Omi continued. Yohji couldn't help but laugh as he turned towards Hagrid and the entrance.

"It's not a lady." He said. "He's a male." The looks on the two kids' faces were priceless, but he supposed he owned Omi an explanation, at the very least. "If you really want to know what's up, you're more than welcome to join me."

So Omi and Hermione went with Yohji and Hagrid to wait on the platform for Yohji's 'special someone'. Omi had to admit, he was rather curious. Who was this mystery person? As someone who had known Yohji for a while, it was easy to see that Yohji was nervous. He paced. He felt up his robes in a manner that Omi recognized meant that Yohji felt he needed a cancer stick. The only surprise was that Yohji didn't produce his usual pack. Instead, he flopped into a bench without producing anything.

"Relax, Yohji." Hagrid reassured Yohji. "He'll get here soon enough."

A few minutes later, Hermione spotted the train coming in.

"It's here!" She shouted, and Yohji sprang to his feet. He practically ran off the edge of the platform, trying to see for himself. The train was slowing down as it neared the station. Yohji backed away to a safe distance. Once it had finally stopped, Yohji positioned himself in front of the door to the first car, a huge grin on his face. It wasn't his flirty grin, Omi noted. It wasn't even his good-looking-salesman look. It was… genuine. There were no other words to describe it. The doors opened, and out of the train came a Japanese witch and… a little boy? The boy caught one glance of Yohji, and his face lit up.

"PAPA!" he shouted, and ran towards Yohji, who had dropped to one knee and was now holding his arms outstretched.

"Madoka!" Yohji said, and caught the little boy in a great hug.

"I missed you, Papa." The boy said in his native language, returning the hug as best he could.

"Well I'm here now." Yohji answered. He separated himself from the boy and took out his wand. He tapped the boy on the head. 

"Loqui Angles" He said. Omi, for his part, still hadn't gotten over the shock of learning that Yohji was a father.

"Papa?" He asked. Yohji just laughed and guided the boy over to where Omi and Hermione were standing.

"Omi-kun, Miss Granger, allow me to introduce my son, Madoka."

Madoka looked like his father in miniature. He had short hair, the same sandy blonde as his father's (which had been back to its natural colour for a while now) His eyes were the same jade green as his father's. And a mole. Madoka had a mole underneath his left eye, where his father had none.

"Mado-chan, this is Omi, and Hermione." Yohji pronounced the names slowly and clearly so the boy could understand them.

"Hi!" Madoka said cheerfully. His eyes wandered as he took in the station.

"Your son is really cute, Professor." Hermione said.

"Thanks." Yohji smiled proudly.

"I can't believe it." Omi shook his head. "Yohji Kudou, the playboy, a caring father." The two just didn't compute in Omi's mind.

"Sure. When we were at the shop, I visited him every weekend. He used to live with his grandmother." Yohji explained.

"Really? I thought you were -" Omi started, but Yohji cut in.

"I *know* what you thought I was doing." Yohji struck an accusatory tone, and put his hands on his hips. Omi blushed. This was about the time that Madoka spotted Hagrid. He tugged on Yohji's robes.

"Papa, who's that?" the boy asked. "He's HUGE." Hagrid had finished loading Madoka's bags, and had come to say goodbye.

"Ah, so this is the little one, is he?" Hagrid bent over to get a better look. Madoka looked wide-eyed up at him, and clutched Yohji's leg possessively. Yohji picked him up.

"This is my friend Hagrid." He told the boy, who immediately brightened again.

"Papa, what are we doing today?" he asked. Ah, the attention span of a four-year old. Shorter than the memory of a goldfish.

"First, I'm going to take you out for a treat, and then I promised Granddad that I'd take you to see him." Yohji answered. Madoka was not impressed.

"But I don't want to see granddad!" He protested. "He's scary!" Once again, Omi's curiosity was piqued. How could Madoka's grandfather be here?

"Granddad?" he asked. "Who's granddad?"

"Professor Snape." Yohji answered.

Nagi did manage to get into the Shrieking Shack by 'prying' loose a few of the boards covering the windows. He suspected, however, that a normal idiot with a crowbar or a wand couldn't have done it. Farfarello was in that same room, making a lot of noise and trashing the already shoddy furniture. Nagi didn't think it was a good idea to leave Farf alone for extended periods of time. When Farfarello was left alone, he got to thinking about his own little demented theology, and when that happened, he slipped into one of his less-sane moods. When THAT happened, someone would have to shut him up. Normally, Schuldig's telepathic abilities made him the ideal person for this job, but when he wasn't available, (like now) Nagi would have to do it. Damned nutcase.

Nagi attracted Farf's attention by sending a piece of broken chair flying past his head. Farf turned around and said nothing. He didn't look surprised to see Nagi, and he didn't speak. He just waited.

"What do you think you're doing, making all this noise?" Nagi hissed.

"Why can't I make noise?" Farfarello countered. "This place is supposed to be haunted."

"It's also supposed to be empty."

"Not my problem." Farf turned his back to Nagi and screamed again. Nagi shot him a venomous glance and forcibly held his mouth shut.

"Look." Nagi told him, even more testily this time. "People from school are starting to get suspicious. You know what Crawford will be like if they start poking around." Nagi knew all too well what Crawford would be like. Since Hermione and he were both in Gryffindor, he would be the one who had to throw her off the trail. Like he was doing now. He released Farf's mouth so he could answer.

"Do I care?" Farfarello said. That was it. Nagi had had it. He wanted to get back to Honeydukes, and the Three Broomsticks. The thing was, he couldn't do that until he was sure Farf would shut up. But what could he say to make that happen? And idea hit.

"Farf, you shut your mouth right now, or so help me, I'll find the nearest Catholic Church, and drag you to confession." He threatened. It seemed to do the trick. Farf's eye widened in horror, and his eyebrows raised.

"You're lying." He accused.

"Try me." Nagi replied, deadpan. Farf shut up.


End file.
